Analogy for Paragraph vs. Character styles?

[Gast]

Hello,

I have a beginner skill level in InDesign and i'm always confused when I should use paragraph or character styles. I like to use analogies to help me understand complicated things. Can anybody craft an interesting analogy to help me understand the difference between the two and when I should use one or the other?

Thanks!

[Peter Spier]

You use a paragraph syle for making toast, a character style to add the raisins when making raisin bread toast.

All paragraphs have text formatting of some sort associated with them. The formatting defined in the paragraph style is the general, or default, case for the paragraph. You use a character style when some special bit of text inside the paragraph needs to be different from the the overall paragraph format.

[Scott Falkner]

Only use Character Styles to format text that is part of a paragraph, but never for the entire paragraph. A paragraph is any text between carriage returns, including headlines; subheads; and, of course, paragraphs.

[Gast]

You use a paragraph syle for making toast, a character style to add the raisins when making raisin bread toast.

I guess that makes grep styles the butter and object styles the plate! What are nested styles – weevils?

[marcusstringer · Accepted solution]

Paragraph Styles for Formatting Paragraphs.

eg

Centered Paragraph Style

Text tex tex tex hjfkdlshjklf hsdfd

gfdgfd gfd gfdsgfds gfd gfd gfdsgfd

gfd gfd gfds gfds gfds gfds gfds gfd

gfds gfd gf dg fds gfds gfd sgfdsgfds.

Character Styles for formatting words or letters within a paragraph

Character Style Bold

Character Style Italic

Text tex tex tex hjfkdlshjklf hsdfd

gfdgfd gfd gfdsgfds gfd gfd gfdsgfd

gfd gfd gfds gfds gfds gfds gfds gfd

italic gfd gf dg fds gfds gfd sgfdsgfds.

[Gast]

Hi all. thanks for the responses! I was secretly hoping for a food-related analogy and delighted that I got it.

[macinbytes]

Walking the dog:

Paragraph styles dictate what your route is, how fast you are going and frequency of breaks. Character styles handle picking up the poop, holding the chain tight if you see another dog or shiny car in the course of the walk.

[Jongware]

Building a house:

Paragraph styles are the bricks & mortar, characters styles the paint & wallpaper.

[Peter Spier]

So presumably you've got the difference down now?